'Miss Ann,' son pour love into lunch for homeless

Tuesday

Jul 30, 2013 at 12:01 AMJul 30, 2013 at 11:31 AM

By 11:15 on a recent Saturday morning, about two dozen people lined the hallway leading to the basement dining area at Bethany Presbyterian Church. Lunch was still 15 minutes away, but some of the guests wanted a sneak peek at the menu - or, more likely, a reprieve from the rain.

By 11:15 on a recent Saturday morning, about two dozen people lined the hallway leading to the basement dining area at Bethany Presbyterian Church.

Lunch was still 15 minutes away, but some of the guests wanted a sneak peek at the menu — or, more likely, a reprieve from the rain.

The way Ann Walker and son Keith see it, the homeless and needy families in their Near East Side neighborhood deserve the best they can offer.

For the past seven years, their best has come in the form of a free Saturday lunch — where those down on their luck dine on tables covered in colorful African cloth; eat a home-cooked meal prepared by Keith, a professional chef; and enjoy the warmth of “Miss Ann.”

“She goes over there and fraternizes with them, just like she would if they were in her home,” volunteer Toni Mitchell said of Walker. “Trust me; I’ve been to her home.”

The 89-year-old Walker — always wearing a traditional African dress and 13 beaded and ivory bangles — began serving hot lunches at the church in 2006, after she and the rest of a community coalition discovered that the homeless in the neighborhood were under-served.

“We found there was no (hot) food service in this area, particularly on the weekend,” she said.

Her church allowed her to use its basement kitchen and dining area, but funding was lacking.

The first Saturday lunch, featuring hot soup and side dishes, drew 15 people.

These days — with stronger financial support from the church as well as donations of money and supplies from throughout the city— Walker and about a dozen other regular volunteers feed more than 125 people each Saturday.

“We haven’t missed a Saturday,” she said, noting that when church renovations recently compelled the kitchen to close for several weeks, they handed out boxed cold lunches.

Keith Walker, who cooks for the Delta Zeta sorority house at Ohio State University during the school year, plans the meal based on his budget, grocery sales and supplies available from food banks.

“It’s not that we try to do anything fancy, just something different from the norm,” he said. “ Some of them are from the South, so we make jambalaya.”

He has also made Mexican and Italian dishes, and, one weekend, even crawfish.

Robert Munnerlyn, 51, said he can taste — and feel — the difference between the Walkers’ lunch and other free meals offered throughout the community.

“They put love in their food,” he said.

Fellow diner Michelle Ricks, 53, is fond of the company, too: “Everybody is nice. We get along like a family.”